


Twin Skeleton's

by Hanakoryu



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eraser!L, M/M, Sci-Fi, Soulmates, Yagami Light is Kira, onism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21539089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hanakoryu/pseuds/Hanakoryu
Summary: “Have you ever felt like… trapped in your body? Like… Like just one life wasn't enough to learn and live anything possible about the world?”L Lawliet is a living legend among the Erasers, the best one of them. When he's assigned to the Kira case, he would never think to become so obsessed with it. He keeps reincarnating in the same temporal line, the one where the killings begin, trying to frame who he suspects to be Kira - Light Yagami. But their endless fight repeats over and over without a real winner.
Relationships: L/Yagami Light
Comments: 10
Kudos: 31





	Twin Skeleton's

**Author's Note:**

> **onism**  
>  _n._ the frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time, which is like standing in front of the departures screen at an airport, flickering over with strange place names like other people’s passwords, each representing one more thing you’ll never get to see before you die—and all because, as the arrow on the map helpfully points out, _you are here_.
> 
> This one-shot was loosely inspired by this prompt at first. Hope you enjoy it!

There's a room in a hotel in London town, bare casket of a lonely shadow of bones and flesh and the dim blue light of a laptop. A distant deep tool, the premise of the din of Big Ben's bells and twenty-five ticks he never shared, never filled with joy nor pain -only the perfect cycle of endless boredom.

†

L Lawliet is a living legend among the Erasers, but almost no one knows how he looks and where he is currently located. Rumours say he is an ethereal aligning of all the temporal lines, particles able to project and blend themselves into an always different figure according to the case. An old man that could be a Charles Dickens' character, a hacker living in the 2D world, a blond hooligan so handsome to resemble a fallen angel... L is more a mask than a name by now, but truth be told it's just one man pulling the strings behind the scenes.  
The number of cases solved by L is as undefined as his possibilities to reincarnate. For each correction in one temporal line, an Eraser gains a new possibility to reincarnate -hence, is L close to immortality, to the very definition of God?  
A picky deity certainly he is, given he only focuses on cases that capture his interest. Just like the Kira case.

Life is an equal trade -a success adds a new reincarnation, a failure takes one. An Eraser so ceases to exist when the number of their reincarnations falls down to zero... Ten of the top-ranked Erasers mysteriously died during the correction required to prevent Kira's rise. There are still no pieces of evidence about the way he kills, though the modality fills a rather logic scheme to L's eyes when he skims the reports at first; criminals are the victims, the death is often caused by a heart attack. The connection brights of juvenile idealism and a strong sense of Justice, which leads to believe Kira probably feels like a God, invincible and untouchable in his shining golden armour... Nonetheless, _all that glitters is not gold, Kira-kun_.

Erasers can choose to reincarnate in any temporal line, they can even reincarnate in the same temporal line for endless time -until the number of their reincarnations falls down to zero, of course.  
L decides to start from the temporal line where the murders begin – _November 2003_.

Mihael Keehl is the first skin of his reincarnations L uses during the investigation.

It's forbidden to reincarnate in a past deletion, so each Eraser is given a persona since their birth - an identity to blend in the mortal realm easily. L never wore his skin to solve a case, he is what one calls an _identity thief_ \- his fingers type infinity universes of stars in the solitude of his dark room, give them personalities and faces taken away in the twinkling of an eye and place them in the right timeline. It's easy just like designing an avatar, filling in all the fields required to build the desired structure. A program he coded by his own lets L mold tone, facial expression, gesturing, even nervous tics… It’s the result of years of observation of human beings' behaviour and a genius mind able to assimilate the most subtle shade -yet, unable to empathize with feelings and to feel himself. Emotions are misleading, elusive drips of a bothering drizzle in November, when wet cold seep through the bones and the whole organism surrenders to its grasp. _Futile concepts_.

After joining the mafia to gather information about Kira, Mihael Keehl suddenly dies of heart attack. When it happens, L is watching the glitching avatar fading away and a sudden pain tightens his chest. His breath itches as his hands claw at the white shirt with such a desperation L has never experienced in his almost-immortality. The cotton is cold and rough beneath his shaky fingers and his will solely focuses on that sensation, nothing but the illusion of safety that slowly drifts off in the abyss of nothingness.  
The loud throbbing of his heart drowns out the din of Big Ben's bells and all of a sudden it's only eternal drowning.

When his eyes open wide, L is laying on his back against the floor, salty tears carved in his bony cheeks, his legs feel heavy and a stabbing pain crosses his chest as he takes a shaky breath. _So this is… death?_ The revelation hits and sinks as icy water thrown at his face, followed by a hiss of frustration between gritted teeth. _Kira needs a name and a face to kill, so I cared to keep secret Mihael's name… How did he get it?! I possibly have underestimated this case…_

The defeat burns him alive other three times before L ponders the risk of his sudden decision. No one knows how he looks and the Eraser bites back a bitter laugh at what his species could think of the legendary L Lawliet… Even Kira could be deceived by his look.

So, from now on, L uses his own persona to reincarnate in that same temporal line again. In the role of the world's greatest detective, he officially starts investigating on the Kira case, with the FBI and the members of the NPA at his command.

Hideki Ryuga is a rather weird individual -or so Light Yagami thinks when they meet at the To-Oh’s entrance exam. He carefully peeks at the young man, sat a few rows behind him, being scolded by a professor for his indecorous actions. He doesn’t seem to care about it and his deep-set eyes keep staring intensely at Light, a thumb toying with his bottom lip and bare feet planted over the edge of the desk. Yagami observes with too much interest the way Ryuga holds his pencil, as if a treasure or probably something despicable.

He doesn't expect Ryuga to politely introduce himself hours later and ask him to play a tennis match together. Beyond surprise, Light's sidelong glance says more than his whispered _yes_ ; L's skinny structure doesn't belong to a past tennis champion nor his poor posture, and his fingers, even if strong in their grip, resemble pale spiders Light can easily crush under the sole of his shoes. Despite this, the malicious way L smiles at him and the bright light in his eyes are promising - Light hasn't ever been attracted to anyone before and Ryuga isn't exactly the most charming boy ever, but during the deadly tennis match the teen was enchanted by those long tapered fingers and, only for a moment, he was jealous of that handler. _Touch me again,_ his high hopes lose a heartbeat when they shower together in silence and his glance indulges on Ryuga's shaped body more than necessary.

“ _I'm L_.”  
If Ryuga's imperfections and his genius mind haven't been surprising enough, Light finds extremely **perfect** that this man is in truth the detective chasing after him. _Kira_.

†

There's a room in a hotel in Tokyo, thick curtains of dark comfort and heavy raindrops against aseptic windows. A cage to dull the pain of a long existence deprived of the sunrise - he never dared to peek at how beautiful it is.

L wastes other two reincarnations before catching Misa Amane, who's suspected to be the Second Kira. He's not entirely interested in the woman, but the trap has an interesting consequence - Light arrives at the headquarter and asks him to confine him, he thinks to be Kira, just like L thinks, and no matter how much the members of the Task Force yell his innocence and the chief is going to have a heart attack at the thought his son is Kira, _L simply smiles_. His ego gloats, above any human right, above any sentiment of fear and rage and resignation written all over the persons' faces in the room. It's only L and the giant monitor displaying any move of Light, _ah Kira-kun_ , and he just has to break him so to get the damn confession and… And then just after a week of silence and sharp eyes staring at him with air of pure challenge and wicked whispers in restless sleep, _You will die L_ … The Eraser's certainties collapse under the weight of these so innocent eyes that shout "I'm not Kira, believe me, Ryuzaki!" and L observes this stranger in quiet astonishment " _Who is this guy, this is not Light Yagami, this is not Kira, who the hell are you?!_ ".

June, 7th, 2004: it's the date Kira cheats L, giving up ownership of the Death Note. L doesn't know what really happened, but he's determined to find it out. He wants Kira back at any cost.

L hates this pure justice-driven version of Light Yagami with a passion. Under the emotionless and lacking of motivation mask, the bite of cake tastes like venom on his tongue and the flavour rolls down in a cascade of insinuations when they are left alone in their room.  
" _I see you, Kira. You can trick anyone but not me, I'm certain it's all an act to banish all suspicions from yourself. But you can't remove the smell of blood from your hands, Kira. Do you think to be a God, a Supreme entity who has the power to cleanse the root of evilness? You're a mass murderer, Kira. The worst criminal, so full of hubris and holy ideals to twist the world just as you please._ "  
Light pretends to be sleeping, but his fingers clasp too tightly around the sheets and the chain binding him to L is suddenly a weapon in his head. He'd love to strangle the detective with it if it wasn't exactly what L hoped for - to push him over the edge, to make him believe what he wants. In his feverish accusations, L sounds almost angry, as if Light stole Kira away from him. "This obsession clouds your mind, Ryuzaki. You see only what you want." He whispers back with a hint of frustration a few hours before catching Higuchi. Light still respects L as a detective, but he cannot deny the common hatred shared during their forced cohabitation and once the moment arrives, he can't wait to prove that L has been wrong the whole time.

 _But L was never wrong._ And things went exactly as planned… According to Kira.

It's so obvious that something has changed, that Kira is back and L can see it clearly in the teen's eyes… There it is, the challenging air is back and that faux innocence of a true murderer is back as well! L's enthusiasm reaches its peak along with the new information, _ah so this Death Note is a real weapon, who would ever think such a power existed, I'm certain some of these rules are fake_ and there's a Shinigami in his headquarter…  
Before he can decipher the signs, the scythe of Death reaps his soul once again and L loses another reincarnation in Light's arms.

_I have been right the whole time. But…_

After waking up on the floor of his room, L doesn't waste time and reincarnates again in the timeline when he meets Light at To-Oh.

_You won't cheat me again, Kira._

"What is it, Light-kun?" L unplugs his headphones with one hand, the other keeps hitting the keys and the incessant _tlack tlack_ follows along with his question. There's a soft rustling of bed-sheets and without averting his gaze from the laptop, L is aware of Light's intense stare in the dim blue light of the display.  
The teen frowns lightly, his auburn eyes flicker with the burning desire of sharing his thoughts, but the suspect dangling over his head still refrains him. They promised each other to tell always the truth, but words are weapons and trust develops only between true friends, who they are not (L lied about it and Light knows it)... But in the end, Light gives in to the urge to talk with the only person _who may understand_ how he feels - or at least the only one he can have a decent conversation with. "Before you take me wrong, it's not related to the Kira case." He warns, fingers fidgeting with the edge of the bed-sheets. A thin veil of uncertainty coats his words and he lets out a soft sigh. "Have you ever felt like… trapped in your body? Like… Like just one life wasn't enough to learn and live anything possible about the world?”  
L finally turns towards Light, eyes unblinking and ghostly holes swallowed in the darkness of his bags. “Do you mean an insatiable need of knowledge?” But the question subtly inquires they're both aware it's not the best description of that feeling; still, L finds it a rather curious question and he waits for Light to explain it.  
In this new reincarnation, the Eraser decided to lead the investigation in another way; he believes this weird innocent version of Light Yagami is the key, so he forces himself to get closer to the teen. Fights still happen and it's rather infuriating the way Light acts in a more righteous way than him sometimes, but all things considered L doesn't mind their long hours talks and Light's brilliant mind always offers a new perspective he never took into account.  
“I thought it was that kind of feeling but...” Light trails off as he rolls on his stomach, a deep frown forming in the middle of his forehead. He looks like struggling with words for a moment until a sudden inspiration brights in his eyes. “To tell the truth I feel like it's a kind of monism. Life is limited to a single reality, by virtue of being restricted to just one single body, yet something is… missing.”  
The inability to feel and experience the existences of other people, to look through their eyes, to learn more and connect with the plural system instead of simply standing in silence in front of a barrier - a departure's screen that flickers over with different names of places like they're nothing but other people's password, the keys to access a whole world of information he would never be able to grasp. _Because you're here, you're stuck in this space-time and you can't move, it's…_  
“It's frustrating.” The admission is let out in a soft sigh, more to himself than to L. Light shakes the head, waving a hand as if dismissing his own words. “Forget it. I'm… I'm just tired and I talk nonsense.”  
“You're not talking nonsense, Light.”  
The teen looks up at the detective, more surprised by L's expression than by the sudden dropping of the honorific. The man's dark eyes are distant as his mind surely is, focused on something Light can't foresee at all. Sometimes L looks ageless, an ethereal figure with more experience than any other human being despite his apparent solitude. This is the true reason behind Light's question - the curiosity and almost-jealousy of who felt stuck in one dimension, if not just half of it considered his actual weird memories of the past months. Like someone erased important information.  
“The covetous demand for interactions and curiosity are peculiar to human nature.”  
L has never realized how little of the true world he had ever experienced despite his privileges as Eraser. He reincarnated only if required to solve an interesting case, but his whole faculty was focused on his task and he never cared to use his almost endless number of reincarnations to connect with others, to live fully any aspect of the world no one but him can see in the various temporal lines. His knowledge is just a database, but none of those information holds the weight of a rich variety of emotions as he can instead see brightening like stars in Light's eyes. Light is the only person he has ever been interested in until to become an obsession and make him waste reincarnations to just know more of this criminal that L could have easily deleted without any proof reincarnations ago.

_What am I doing? It's like… I don't want our game to end._

"Sadly, humans can just inhabit one body at a time, which makes impossible to connect in a more pluralistic form with one another...” L turns off his laptop and lays on his side under the blankets, facing Light. “Even if limiting, the only way they can experience indirectly other lives is by sharing memories.”  
The chain slides down between them as Light rolls on his side and tucks himself in. He keeps thinking in silence, pondering L's words and still finding his answer as an explanation of basic interactions -though, it's anything they can have as limited creatures. As if reading his mind, the detective leans closer just to plug one earbud in the teen's ear. “Listen.” He admonishes before Light protests, playing again the song he was listening to on his iPod. The teen rises a brow, waiting to hear what kind of music L is into and wondering if it's just another test to prove he is Kira... when suddenly a melodious bell chimes. Light can't recognize it, of course he can't because it doesn't live in his memories but in L's. The detective's eyes soften and the hint of a smile curls his lips; his expression is so pure and heartbreaking that Light almost holds his breath, his heart pounding fast against the ribcage - outlined by the moonlight, the attraction felt the very first time they met at To-Oh is still there and the teen craves for L’s touch again, just a squeeze or a distracted caress to soothe his touch-starving state.  
“I used to live in an attic in Westminster that offered a wonderful view of the London skyline. At five in the afternoon, I sat by the window with a cup of tea, listening to the Big Ben's chime... Its sound always had a hypnotic and relaxing effect on me, I think it was close to the definition of home when I came back from a tiring working trip.” The Big Ben's tolls welcomed L every time he came back from the dead, its notes gently calmed his breath as he laid on the floor of his attic and it almost felt like the warm human touch he's never experienced. “I tried to record it and clean the street noises in the background, but it's not the same. When the case ends, you could come to England with me and hear in person how beautiful it is.”  
Light feels like floating in the deep shades of L's voice and the bells; for a moment he views himself by the window of that attic and he wishes to be there for real, maybe with L. The detective is not that bad as he thought, even if there's the vicious smell of a lie in his offer. _If he's not Kira, then..._  
“I'd love to.” Even if it's a lie, Light smiles. “Can we...?”  
Before he finishes the sentence, L has already put the record on loop and they fall in a dreamless sleep listening to the melodious chime of the Big Ben.

L knows death is close when he hears the bells under the heavy rain. Their loud echo is a warning he doesn't pay attention to and he bows to clean Kira's feet in utter silence, aware of another defeat.  
This time, Kira kisses him on his lips an hour before Rem writes L's name on the Death Note.

†

“ **Ha ha, ya're finally awake! Thought you were dead for real, dude.** ”

When L awakes, he feels the rough texture of sand grains under him. Sudden panic seizes at his chest when he realizes he's not in his room, but in an unknown space where a warm dry wind lashes at his face. As he jerks up, he almost falls back again when he spots a weird creature staring down at him with yellow glowing eyes. "A… Shinigami?" He doesn't know how other Shinigami look, he only met Rem and this one clearly looks like a Shinigami to him. It's the only explanation his mind comes up within his frantic confused state.

" **Hyuk hyuk. You already met Rem, right? I'm Ryuk.** " The Shinigami flaps his wings, towering over L and twisting up his body in a rather uncomfortable way. " **Don't ya have an apple? So long Light-o gave me one…** "  
"Light?" L tilts the head aside, studying the Shinigami until the realization of _who_ he is sinking in. “You’re Light’s Shinigami, aren’t you?” He has already figured out Rem is Misa’s Shinigami, so following logic, even Light had one. Hands in his pockets, L looks around but his eyes only met desert and not that far other Shinigami are lazily perching on some rocks.  
Ryuk nods in response, untwisting his body as it’s obvious that L isn’t going to give him an apple; well, he didn’t expect such courtesy from the man who’s reincarnating over and over in the same temporal line to kill Light. “ **I know your kind, Eraser.** ” A black talon points at the Eraser and the Shinigami sneers at L’s bewildered face. “ **Ya know, our King doesn’t like you that much, coz only Shinigami are s’posed to kill and all this deletion and correction thing is a pain in the ass...** ” Nobody knows that the Shinigami King and the first Eraser reached a sort of agreement: Shinigami wouldn’t ever interfere with Erasers’ work, only if they killed people whose deletion was inevitable. Most of the Shinigami don’t know about the Erasers and don’t even care when a human who wasn’t supposed to die that early, suddenly disappear. “ **But I noticed a while ago there was something strange in an old timeline… I peeked at it and found out what was going on.** ”  
Ryuk has been observing L’s several failures the whole time, bemused by the show this stubborn Eraser and Light were giving him. Ah, humans never ceased to entertain him!  
“I see… I guess you brought me in the Shinigami realm after the death of my last reincarnation.” Who, if not a Shinigami, could be the key to such a mystery? “Why?” L was simply doing his work, so he didn’t understand why a Shinigami was so interested in him. Unless… Ryuk said he was peeking at an old timeline and L never cared to see what Kira was doing in the future; from the reports of the investigations, he knew already the whole world wound surrender to Kira’s influence. Did anything change while he was trying to stop Kira’s rise from the start in the previous timeline?  
Ryuk beckons him with a tilt of the head as he flies towards a hidden niche between the rocks. A white vortex of the size of a mirror spreads between the cracks, probably it’s one of the portals Shinigami use to descend in the mortal realm. “ **I shouldn’t show ya this, but there’s no really a rule about it so...** ” Ryuk scratches his chin pensively and he’s still grinning when he lets L get closer to the portal. “ **I** **t’s January 28** **th** **, year 2010.** ” Love kills Shinigami and even if the feeling isn’t exactly _love_ , Ryuk won’t ever forget that day he wrote Light’s name in his Death Note -to be fairly honest, he shouldn't even miss Light, who was the most interesting and funny human he has ever met. But sometimes, just sometimes, the Shinigami misses him a lot. More than apples.  
L peeks at the portal, identifying some small faded figures outside the screen. There are people he doesn’t know, but he recognizes Near, one of L’s successors, the members of the Task Force… and Light. “ **The albino kid was pretty smart, ya know. He forced Light-o to reveal he’s Kira and screw up the whole thing ‘bout the fake rules... He has such a diabolic mind, too bad he doesn’t want to use the Death Note…** ” L isn’t really listening to Ryuk’s comments, he steps closer and closer to the screen as he observes what’s going on. Light explaining why Kira is the saviour of the world, why Near is going to die, why he should let him win, then there’s a shot, Matsuda is crying and yelling and he’s about to kill Kira for sure, this Kira laying in his own blood and pitifully clutching to Ryuk’s legs and ask him to spare his life, to kill the others and not him, not him no, no, no… This future dying version of Light is shocking, L doesn’t really recognize him if it isn’t for the cunning smile and the burning fire in his eyes when he speaks of L, _of him_ , when Near shows up wearing an L’s mask.  
“ **He blabbered how much it was funnier with L in the six years after your, well fake, death.** ” A black talon digs in the vortex of memories and smoke swirls around it, deleting Light’s dead expression.  
“What does it mean?” Fists clenched and bangs obscuring his eyes, L whispers through gritted teeth. His shoulders slightly quiver and he’s not sure what kind of emotion is causing the reaction -frustration, anger, sadness, deceit… or just a wild combination of all of them. It’s overwhelming, it tastes like sand and his throat is strangely dry when he speaks up again. “I was assigned to the Kira case. To delete Kira. An action that wouldn't ever change things since you Shinigami took care of it first without letting us know… So, it was a joke, wasn’t it?”  
The deletion process doesn't work if the human has been already deleted in a future timeline by another Eraser or another supernatural creature like a Shinigami. All the other timelines would, in the end, converge in the one where the deletion happened -unless an extraordinary event causes a divergence. L has always made sure to never run up against the problem, that would cause only a futile expenditure of energy.  
So if he ever tried to delete Light Yagami, the process would fail because Ryuk killed him already in another timeline.  
" **Well… maybe? I dunno what the King was up to...** ” Ryuk shrugs, laughing at the angered glance L casts at him. But even Ryuk didn’t know what was going on until he noticed a weird intrusion in a past timeline, only because he sometimes liked to look at the good old days and so he found out that an Eraser was chasing after Kira. Oh, at first he did really laugh at it, aware it was just a waste of energy and reincarnations, but he somehow enjoyed L and Light’s fights and he didn’t have a good laugh for a very long time… He's just let L putting the puzzle pieces together, he didn’t really break any rules by showing the Eraser the memories trapped in that portal. “ **Ya know, Shinigami get bored ha ha!** ”

After showing L the portal connected to the Erasers' dimension, Ryuk observes the Eraser disappearing in the voluptuous coils of smoke, wondering what he’s going to do now. Whatever the choice is, he’s certain L will give him another good show to watch - this Eraser is smart and interesting, just like Light.

†

L reincarnates again in the timeline where Hideki Ryuga and Light Yagami meets at the To-Oh’s entrance exam. As if following an already written script, the course of events doesn’t change and suddenly they’re again handcuffed to one another, forced to live together until the Kira case is closed.

“Five sugar cubes and two teaspoons of milk. And I… uhm… added milk chocolate powder.” Light is handing him a cup of coffee, almost looking away in an apologetic way; they had another fight a few hours ago and for the first time ever L saw Soichiro scolding his son for his ill-tempered behaviour.  
“Thanks.” He murmurs, welcoming the hot beverage and taking a careful sip. The add of chocolate powder is pleasant and he hums contentedly while Light sits on the bed next to him. Silence reigns for a while, only broken by the soft ticketing of a midnight drizzle.  
L hasn’t decided yet what to do. No matter his choices, Light Yagami will die in six years by the hand of his own Shinigami -this is what probably Ryuk was trying to tell him, but… He shouldn’t care about this criminal’s fate, he should simply drop the case and look for another interesting one, so why he’s insisting in trying over and over and wasting reincarnations for an already dead man?!

 _Because you would miss him and this case is more personal than you expected_ , a wicked voice whispers in his ear.

“Ryuzaki.” Light’s voice thrills with urgency and worry. The teen wonders what’s wrong with the detective, it’s been days he’s closed in weird mutism and the whole Task Force is worried as well. “I… I didn’t mean those wor-”  
“Light.” L cuts him off, the cup still warm between his hands and Light’s smells lingering over the edge. It's like an indirect kiss, gentle like the feeble rays of sunlight in the morning torpor and the echo of past conversations. “Have you ever felt stuck in your body, as if standing in front of a screen and unable to experience what the world and other people’s existences offer?”  
Light startles in surprise and the chain rattles between them as the teen bites down his lips, looking for the right answer. “Yes.” He whispers after what sounds like an eternity and suddenly L’s lips are on his own and Light tastes milk chocolate and sweet coffee on his own. After few moments, instinct guides his actions and he responds to the kiss with more passion, wanton and needy to feel the touch of those hands on his body and those lips violating his over and over.  
L is aware of his naive clumsiness as he deepens the kiss and lets Light guide them both to the right movements. Breaths clashing and mingling in the gap between their mouths, L runs his thumb along Light's lips, swollen from the kiss and probably from the kick he received earlier in the face. Light blushes softly as he takes L's hand in his and kisses his knuckles. L's body quivers in anticipation, shaken by how fragile and tender a foreign touch can be; he toys with his bottom lip, staring at Light in a daze, before leaning closer and claiming the teen's lips again. The taste still is intoxicating, a touch of bitterness that melts suddenly in a wave of milky coffee and he can drink of it over and over without ever getting bored.  
Soon they are only hands tangled in hair, mouths devouring each other and bites and soft moans in the dim light of their room.

The day L is supposed to die, Light shows up in his room, the one they used to share after the members of the Task Force leave. L knows he has already regained the memories of the Death Note, he can see the subtle changes as he can clearly tell, by the way Light looks at him, that there's something wrong.  
Light doesn't say anything, simply shoves L against the wall and kisses him with desperate passion, as almost trying to rip off his skin bite after bite.  
"Light…. _Wait_." L pushes him away all of a sudden and he takes advantage of Light's moment of surprise, wrapping his arms safely around his waist and pressing his forehead against his. "I have something to tell you first and I want you to listen to me carefully now."

_Then it's up to you to believe me._

†

There's a room in an attic in Winchester, where the Big Ben's chime seduces a skyline kissed by the sunrise. The sun blooms on the horizon, golden petals stretching outwards into the rich blue -a warm blanket upon tired shoulders, the light of a new beginning. And when the sun rises, the sky is shades of orange and pink.

L has never considered the possibility of falling in love with someone, to live his days side by side with another person for the rest of his life. There’s no rule forbidding Erasers to end up in a relationship with non-Erasers, but a lot of them still prefer to stick with their kind. L doesn’t really care about the reasons behind said choice… But the choice he made six years ago is still considered a very extraordinary event in the history of Erasers. The little experience in the Shinigami realm made him realize how unpredictable life was, how little he knew and could foresee. Simply, it was frustrating. He even wondered how many times different correction processes overlapped and if the deletion of a human being could really make the difference in future temporal lines.

“ _Have you ever felt like… trapped in your body? Like… Like just one life wasn't enough to learn and live anything possible about the world?”_

L thought that he wouldn't mind experiencing a world where Kira exists. He wouldn't mind seeing through Kira’s eyes, to witness the rise of this brand New World… The world's greatest detective L affirmed Kira was evil, but the Eraser L found the correction process just another shield for faux Justice. Erasers and Kira weren't different - and probably this was the real reason behind the request of deleting Kira.

Last but not least, he didn’t want to lose Light.

L reincarnated a lot of times during the Kira case, but never lived fully any of these reincarnations. It was a skin he wore just like you put on a jacket without even caring if it's black or red; it’s a habit, an ordinary event that never shakes your existence. So why not exchanging all the reincarnations at his disposal to live the only life he wants to?  
The Council of Erasers didn’t take well his decision, but after finding out the Shinigami killed Kira in another timeline and considered all the memorable cases L has solved, he was free to do anything he wanted. Even request a divergence for just one temporal line, reject his role as Eraser and live a life as mortal until his very last days.  
_Nonsense_ , they said but no-one could prevent L from acting as wished.  
He turned into a common mortal right after the night Kira showed up in his room, the day L was supposed to die. That night L decided to tell him about his true nature, all their fights in the several reincarnations, even the fact that Light Yagami already died in the future… They were shocking revelations all at once, but it felt so refreshing, to tell the truth, to stop lying even to himself.

Beyond expectations, Light believed him.

He confessed that he felt like experiencing different stages of the past months after regaining his memories -probably several reincarnations in the same lifetime influenced directly the humans living in there, L deduced studying the teen’s face.

What happened next it’s full of eventful days and plans that definitely cleared Light of all suspicions and convict Higuchi as the main Kira. Misa was asked to give up the ownership of the Death Note once again, an easy task for Light to accomplish, and Rem was allowed to descend on Earth to see the woman whenever she wanted. L didn’t care what would happen to the idol, though he wondered if as Eraser he should have deleted her… She was Kira, a far more dangerous one than Light to be honest. Anyway, Rem would sacrifice herself over and over to protect Misa, so in the end, L let Light taking care of that delicate situation.

Few months after the case, Light Yagami left Japan and move in England with L.

“Mh… L?”  
Light cracks one eye open, an arm-stretching to look for the warm body of his boyfriend, but his hand unceremoniously falls between crumpled bed-sheets and soft orange pools of sunrise. Following the source of light, he spots L sitting by the large window with a cup of coffee in his hands. The shades of orange and pinks soften the sharp edges of his bony profile and make him look like a rather ethereal figure, ready to vanish at any moment. Light watches him through half-lidded eyes, feeling the urge to kiss those beautiful thin lips and feel their body wedging in together like perfect puzzle pieces.  
L sneers when Light steals his cup and straddle his naked body on his lap, demanding attention in a selfish yet adorable way. “I don’t understand how you can drink it.” L’s coffee is too sweet as always, but Light keeps stealing his cup and taking a sip of it -it feels like a stolen kiss, a lascivious act that only makes the older man indulge in the smell of sugary coffee on Light’s lips and kiss him. They kiss for a long time until a loud noise in the next room make them stop.  
“Guess Ryuk is playing Mario Kart again...” Light chuckles as they now can clearly hear the noises of the game and Ryuk’s laughter. “Hope he didn’t wake you up.”  
“No... I just woke up half an hour ago.” L shakes the head, nuzzling Light’s neck. He can’t tell he stayed awake the whole night, watching over Light due to the fear of losing him at any time. It was January 28th, the year 2010, and L has feared that date for years; what if Light died anyway despite his decision to prevent it? All the other temporal lines converged to the one Ryuk killed Kira... But not the one L was living with Light. In this temporal line, Light shouldn't die on January 28th, but L couldn't tell it for sure.... So he frantically observed the man sleeping until the clock stroke the beginning of the new day; January 29th begun with Light still alive, Ryuk playing Mario Kart and L winking tears away, before cuddling back against Light. Emotions were still hard to deal with after six years of relationship, but he couldn’t help just being reassured by Light’s arms hugging him tightly and his hands caressing his back.  
“I’m here.” Light murmurs, pecking at L’s lips. He’s never known what was the date of his death in the other timeline, but he could read L enough to understand the day was close and how worried the man was about it. “I love you.”

The Death Note lays on the nightstand, still open on the pages where they wrote new criminals’ names last night. L never regretted his choices in the last six years; as he explained to Light from the beginning, the Eraser’s work was rather close to Kira’s so he could understand the reason behind Light’s choices and his ideals. He never thought how those words were probably what Light ever hoped to listen from someone, to be somehow reassured, that his intentions weren’t evil... That he longed for someone he could trust and share his secret. On the other side, L felt the same. Six years taught him to share and live fully any moment -that _home_ was sunrise in a lazy morning or Light’s footsteps when he came back home or the smell of coffee in the kitchen. Little details that he experienced through the other half of his mortal life and none of his reincarnations ever gave him.

Even if stuck in one body, he felt more alive than ever now watching the sunrise with Light.

“I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you arrived safe and sound till the end... have a slice of cake and a cup of tea ❤︎  
> I know this story is rather weird, but I hope everything is somehow clear- At least the general idea haha. Well we can sum it up this way: the Shinigami King was bored and he pranked the Erasers LOL Could the Erasers notice Kira was dead in another timeline? Yes and no. Because I viewed this world as endless temporal lines, so for example there's even a timeline where Light hasn't picked up the Death Note or another one where Kira beats Near. Which means that any little change generates as consequence a new timeline. Also, the Shinigami could have twisted the whole thing a little so no one noticed Kira was dead in a future timeline... LOL my mind is weird, bear with it. I would have liked to talk more about the Erasers but lol I would like to know what you think of them-- because yes, that hint of the reason why Kira needed to be deleted, is not just a hint haha  
> Okay I should stop blabbering-- I hope you liked this one-shot and please leave a comment if you'd like ❤︎  
> Last but not least-- A HAPPY ENDING WOW HANA'S THAT YOU?!  
> And thanks FOB for the title~  
> Oki doki, thanks for reading!  
> Ja ne~ ❤︎


End file.
